Class Participation (15%)

This part of your grade covers how well you participate in our discussions within the face-to-face classroom. Because we meet only once per week, I place a premium on discussion during that time and want each of us to feel free to contribute to class discussion each week.

However, for those not comfortable speaking out in class, email lists are a good way to satisfy this participation requirement, by leading and participating in online discussions of the readings. If you want to extend our class discussions on the class email list, then by all means post your thoughts or share a resource on the list. Conversely, if you are not comfortable writing to an electronic forum, you can earn your participation points by vocalizing your ideas during our face-to-face class meetings. If you want to blend the two, that's fine with me also.

To keep me from hogging airspace in the classroom, I'll be assigning two of you each week to initiate class discussion based on the assigned readings due that day. During our first meeting, we'll draw up a schedule of classes. Your leading of class discussion be based on a mini-lecture summary of that day's reading as reflected in your reading essays, or can take the form of an advanced PowerPoint presentation exploring issues raised in the reading. Whatever you and your partner decide to do, the end result should result in an interesting conversation between you and your peers about themes and ideas from that day's reading.